Help Yourself

Sunday, April 29, 2007

The body language of confidence is always the look of energy. Drooping shoulders, a protruding stomach, a sagging jaw, or half-closed eyes are never signs of confidence.

Assume the energy position - tummy in, shoulders back, chest out, chin up, a smile on you r face, and the glint of success in your eyes. It is true that none of us can always present that energy, but doing these things will increase the energy you burn from day to day...

n an ideal world nobody would be shy, have facial ticks or apply for jobs when they'd rather be down the pub. But it isn't. So how can you make sure you sail through the interview process? You could hire an actor to stand in for you at your interview (method actors have got the body language game sewn up). Or you could just teach your body to behave itself.

It's not as hard as it sounds - after all, you've already learned not to spit or clutch your privates in public (footballers are a special case). All you need is a mirror, a video-camera and a cat.

Most people have no idea how other people see them. They don't see their habitual expressions and they can't tell if their words are backed up by the tone of their voice and posture.

When you prepare for an interview it's important not just to practise what you have to say, but how you say it. The best way to see how you appear to others is to practise in front of a mirror. If you can, you should videotape yourself and ask friends for feedback. If there's nobody around, practise with your cat. The more prepared you are, the more relaxed and confident you'll feel - and appear.

When it comes to the interview itself, adopt an open posture. Sit up comfortably and lean slightly forwards so you look alert and attentive. Breathe slowly. And make sure your clothes aren't too tight: it won't give a good impression if you make a gesture and your jacket buttons fly off. Just remember the mnemonic 'ROLE', which stands for relaxed, open, leaning and eye contact.

You have more control of your body language above the waist, so beware of 'leakage' lower down - such as picking your fingers or twitching your feet. This type of behaviour can make you look unconfident. And yes, it is a good idea to visit the loo before your interview, particularly if you're nervous.

There is no point attempting to lie - or exaggerate - in an interview. Just be yourself. If you say what you mean and mean what you say your verbal and non-verbal communication will match. Any interviewer worth his salt is interested in who you really are.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

"No one is rich or poor who has not helped himself to be so." German Proverb

Understanding Yourself - Do You Know Who You Are?

Do you wonder why there are those charmed individuals that the gods seem to favor? What is it they have that others don't? Is it some mystical charm, the right fortune cookie, or something more down to earth such as knowing who they are and what they want out of life?

Here is a clue to your future success as an entrepreneur - can you predict how you are going to react to stress or success? Most successful people can. Psychologists are quick to tell us that before you can accomplish your goals you must have some understanding of who you are - your strengths, your limitations, and your ability to apply yourself to get what you want from life.

Whatever you dream of doing, remember you will bring your personality to your adventure. Your habits, your views on life, and your attitude are the luggage you will carry with you. Before starting out, take some time to find out who you are.

Let me tell you about Roger, who, after losing his job, borrowed from his parents to start a business. A year later, the sheriff padlocked the front door. As Roger came to understand later his motivation to start a business was an emotional need to prove his employer wrong, not the challenges and freedom of self-employment.

Before you can get the world to respond to your wants, you must discover what turns you on. Are you focused or do you meander through life hoping for a miracle to bring you riches and fame? Are you in the audience or on the stage? Do you lead or follow? Do you want betterment or comfort? A successful life can be yours once you define your desires and drive.

Starting and managing a business is not easy. It is full of challenges and problems, and it is how you will react and cope with disappointment, frustration, and the emotions of success that will determine your success or failure. Before you undertake a pile of problems, you should be aware of your coping skills. Don't wait until you have the problem before finding out if you have the talents to solve it.

To understand yourself is to know how you will behave and react to situations, pleasant and unpleasant. For example, I thought I could easily handle change, but after a number of instances, I found just the opposite. I have learned that the successful outcome of my problems depends on my ability to cope.

Your success will follow your actions, the right actions if you understand yourself, and you will have an inner sense of how to react to challenges and rewards. Test yourself. How do you relate to the following questions?

1. Do you understand your motives for your actions, or do you just act on impulse? Impulsive action in business can lead to failure.

2. Do you want something because others have it or are your wants based on reality and real need? Envy is not good business sense or rational behavior.

3. Do you know what leadership is or do you have some romantic notion of leading the charge?

4. Can you accept disagreement or does it escalate to an argument to prove you are right? Not a good sign of management skills.

5. Can you stand confrontation or do you say yes when you really mean no? Success in business means saying no when the demand is not in your best interest.

6. Do you need the glory of success to feed your ego? If so, your insecurities are showing.

7. Can you share or do you need all the marbles to feel important? Teamwork builds a successful business not monarchy.

8. Can you make decisions or are you afraid of making a mistake? Fear causes procrastination and can lead to failure.

9. Do you follow through or just assume "it " will happen? The lack of follow up is typical of poor performance.

10. Do you give up too soon? If you do you may miss out.

11. Do you look for shortcuts to success, putting effort and honesty aside? There are few shortcuts to long-term success, only eventual failure.

Do any of these questions touch home? If so, you have your first assignment.

Getting what you want in life is knowing why you do the things you do - what drives us to accomplishment or self-destruction. When we uncover these hidden forces of our personality we have taken the first step to an adventure in success. You will find that self- examination is a lot less painful than failure.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Self-Motivation Techniques

Give yourself credit. Ideas are actually a dime a dozen. If you learn to focus your mind on what results you want to achieve, you'll recognize the good ideas. Your mind will become a filter for them, which will motivate you to learn more.

Motivate yourself. Why do you want to learn something? What do want to achieve through learning? If you don't know why you want to learn, then distractions will be far more enticing.

Set a goal. W. Clement Stone once said "Whatever the mind of man can conceive, it can achieve." It's an amazing phenomenon in goal achievement. Prepare yourself by whatever means necessary, and hurdles will seem surmountable. Anyone who has experienced this phenomenon understands its validity.

Think positive. There's no point in setting learning goals for yourself if you don't have any faith in your ability to learn.

Organize, part 2. Learning is only one facet of the average adult's daily life. You need to organize your time and tasks else you might find it difficult to fit time in for learning. Try Neptune for a browser-based application for "getting things done."

Every skill is learned. With the exception of bodily functions, every skill in life is learned. Generally speaking, if one person can learn something, so can you. It may take you more effort, but if you've set a believable goal, it's likely an achievable goal.

Prepare yourself for learning. Thinking positive isn't sufficient for successfully achieving goals. This is especially important if you are an adult, as you'll probably have many distractions surrounding your daily life. Implement ways to reduce distractions, at least for a few hours at a time, else learning will become a frustrating experience.

Prepare yourself, part 2. Human nature is such that not everyone in your life will be a well-wisher in your self-improvement and learning plans. They may intentionally or subconsciously distract you from your goal. If you have classes to attend after work, make sure that work colleagues know this, that you are unable to work late. Diplomacy works best if you think your boss is intentionally giving you work on the days he/she knows you have to leave. Reschedule lectures to a later time slot if possible/ necessary.

Constrain yourself. Most people need structure in their lives. Freedom is sometimes a scary thing. It's like chaos. But even chaos has order within. By constraining yourself — say giving yourself deadlines, limiting your time on an idea in some manner, or limiting the tools you are working with — you can often accomplish more in less time.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Let me share you one of Mr Mao's article in Yahoo.. It's his advise in keeping our memory healthy that helps us remember things.

The article has a few tips, but I'll be re-posting the Gymnastics way of keeping our mind on shape.. (who would want to hunt for the herbal thing anyway?)

So here it is...

Mental Gymnastics Keep Your Mind NimbleIt is normal to become more absent-minded as we age, and in fact, most people over the age of 40 experience some memory loss. The most likely causes of a forgetful memory include poor concentration due to brain-chemical imbalance, tiredness, depression, anxiety, and sleep disorders.

If you find you are more forgetful than usual, try these steps and see if there isn't some improvement in your cognitive clarity:

Get an uninterrupted eight hours of sleep each night.

Do a half an hour of cardiovascular exercise every day, such as brisk walking, slow jogging, biking, or swimming. This will improve circulation and increase blood flow to the brain.

Turn yourself upside down for a couple of minutes daily.

Mental fitness activities are imperative to prevent age-related cognitive decline. Read and learn new things, find new hobbies, do crossword puzzles, add up your bill in your head while shopping, memorize a set of phone numbers forward and backwards; all these can stimulate brain cell activities and in some cases even grow new brain pathways.

Work with your physician to find a supplemental regimen that helps improve your cognitive capabilities. Memory-enhancing supplements and herbs include B-complex vitamins, magnesium, CoQ10, alpha-lipoic acid, fish oil, flax seed oil, Chinese club moss, ginkgo, and ginseng. A supplement that has been well-documented in Europe for reversing age-related dementia and memory loss is phosphatidylserine (PS), a compound made by the body from the amino acid serine. Taken in supplement form, PS lowers stress response and promotes the release of neurotransmitters in the brain that facilitate thought, reasoning, and concentration.

I hope you find your days more memorable for many years to come! I invite you to visit often and share your own personal health and longevity tips with me.

I managed to stumble upon a post by Simon Kitson. It's about the things to remember when working for yourself.

I would like to repost it here for my readers and soon to be readers.

The 10 Things to Remember When Working for Yourself.....

1. Manage your money, or it will manage you. Really.2. Care for your customers. It's more than just technology.3. Care for your employees too. You are their God. Be a good one.4. Remember sales and marketing. Success means more than good techies.5. Plan ahead, tomorrow will come, no matter how busy today is.6. Keep learning. Your current knowledge/skills will go out of date.7. Remember your family and friends. Companies often eat their owners.8. Listen to your body. It will tell you when your over-stressed.9. Smell the roses. You wont get paid during holidays. But you still need them.10. Pin this on the wall and read it everyday. And read other business stuff.

There. I could go on and explain them one by one... But where's the fun in that? :)Go ahead and post what you think.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

If you're tired of feeling bad about yourself, or just want some tips for those down days, these 7 practical strategies will help you take action to boost your self-esteem.

Boost self-esteem tip #1: Think back to when you did something new for the first time.

Learning something new is often accompanied by feelings of nervousness, lack of self-belief and high stress levels, all of which are necessary parts of the learning process. The next time you feel under-confident, remembering this will remind you that it's perfectly normal - you're just learning!

Boost self-esteem tip #2: Do something you have been putting off.

Like writing or calling a friend, cleaning the house, tidying the garden, fixing the car, organizing the bills, making a tasty and healthy meal - anything that involved you making a decision, then following through!

Boost self-esteem tip #3: Do something you are good at.

Examples? How about swimming, running, dancing, cooking, gardening, climbing, painting, writing... If possible, it should be something that holds your attention and requires enough focus to get you into that state of `flow' where you forget about everything else. You will feel more competent, accomplished and capable afterwards, great antidotes to low self-esteem!

And while you're at it, seriously consider doing something like this at least once a week. People who experience `flow' regularly seem to be happier and healthier.

Boost self-esteem tip #4: Stop thinking about yourself!

I know this sounds strange, but low self-esteem is often accompanied by too much focus on the self. Doing something that absorbs you and holds your attention can quickly make you feel better.

Boost self-esteem tip #5: Get seriously relaxed.

If you are feeling low, anxious or lacking in confidence, the first thing to do is to stop thinking and relax properly. Some people do this by exercising, others by involving themselves in something that occupies their mind. However, being able to relax yourself when you want is a fantastic life skill and so practicing self-hypnosis, meditation, or a physically based relaxation technique such as Tai Chi can be incredibly useful.

When you are properly relaxed, your brain is less emotional and your memory for good events works better. A great 'rescue remedy'!

Boost self-esteem tip #6: Remember all the things you have achieved.

This can be difficult at first, but after a while, you'll develop a handy mental list of self-esteem boosting memories. And if you're thinking "But I've never achieved anything", I'm not talking about climbing Everest here.

Things like passing your driving test (despite being nervous), passing exams (despite doubting that you would), playing team sport, getting fit (even if you let it slip later), saving money for something, trying to help someone (even if it didn't work) and so on.

Boost self-esteem tip #7: Remember that you could be wrong!

If you are feeling bad about yourself, remember that you way you feel affects your thoughts, memory and behavior. So when you feel bad, you will only remember the bad times, and will tend to be pessimistic about yourself. This is where the tip `Get Seriously Relaxed' comes in!

Once you have tried out a few of these, consider making them a permanent part of your life. For most people, good self-esteem is not just a happy accident, it's a result of the way they think and the things they do from day to day. Good Luck!

Now that's a pretty thought... At 30, early isn't it? Retirement does not necessary means your 80 years old and had

spent the last 50 years of your life in a company. As a matter of fact, retirement means you are through with working!

You just sit around the house watching tv, eating, playing with the kids (grand kids) reading and enjoying life..

(Don't forget to exerice and life a healthy life, ok?) But then again, would you enjoy your life if your 80 and almost one feet on the grave? 'course not!

Retiring at 30 means you are financially established. This way, the things that I mentioned above (living the life stuff) can be achived. The sad thing is, if you're in my age bracket, you're almost 30! And again, if you're like me, there's no way for us to retire at 30 because you feel underpaid, no savings and you're 29! Or worse, you'r way past 30!

Don't worry, if you can't retire at 30, there's still a good chance for our children to make it. All we have to do is teach them how to.

Your kid should know that getting a job will not make him rich. It's very wrong to think, "getting a job" after finishing school will make them rich. This mentality have been program to us ever since childhood. The only way to get rich it to do business. Risky yes, but that's the only way to go. Well, not the only way, but the best way. Like this thing I read somewhere - children should learn to "sit down on the other side of the table". Why climb the corporate ladder when you can own that fre@K!$#ng ladder! :) They's no objection in finishing school and getting a job eventually, but having work or a job while doing a business is a sure way to go!

Always remind your child to retire by thirty. Always encourage them to seek for financial freedom, not just a sense of job security. Everyone's best chance at becoming rich is through owning a successful business.

I'm not there yet, but that's my ultimate goal.

I am currently employed at one of the biggest semiconductor manufacturing company in the world (the underpaid statement above still proves true here). I want to believe I have secure a stable position in the company but I do have a plan to put up several businesses. Like I said, own the ladder! Keep your day job, but mind your own business!